EMBERIZIDE. 169 
and yellow mixed; legs, toes and claws light brown. 
In winter the head is much more marked with black. 
The female has less yellow about the head, and the 
general colour is not so bright. The young birds 
have no yellow on the head, which is a sort of dull 
rusty brown till after the first moult. Varieties of 
the Yellowhammer occasionally occur: one rather 
curious one is described in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1864, 
in which the upper parts were deep cream-colour, 
tail and wing-coverts white. 
The eggs are of a dullish white ground, slightly 
tinged with dull purple, and scrawled all over with 
brown lines; they are subject to variety. There is a 
notice in the ‘ Zoologist’ of a perfectly white variety: 
in this case the nest contained four eggs all white. 
Ciret Buntine, Emberiza cirlus. The Cirl Bunt- 
ing is is by no means common in these parts: those 
in my collection, which I shot here in March, 1864, 
are the first and the last I have ever seen in my own 
immediate neighbourhood; I have, however, seen 
some specimens at Mr. Bidgood’s, which were 
obtained in the neighbourhood of Wiveliscombe. 
The species was first added to the list of British 
birds by Colonel Montagu, who found the Cirl 
Bunting in South Devon, between Teignmouth and 
Kingsbridge: he at first supposed it was confined to 
Devonshire, but he afterwards procured specimens 
from Somersetshire, near Bridgwater and Glaston- 
bury, on the road from which place to Wells I have 
Q 
